


Day 3- Special Interests

by Broken_Clover



Series: Autistic Creative Challenge 2019 [3]
Category: Guilty Gear
Genre: Autism Spectrum, Autistic Creative Challenge, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Medical, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 13:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18344618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broken_Clover/pseuds/Broken_Clover
Summary: For as long as he could remember, Faust was fascinated with medicine.





	Day 3- Special Interests

For as long as he could remember, Faust was fascinated with medicine.

There was just something about it that always managed to turn his head. The delicate tuning of a body and mind until it was healthy again. Piecing together a menagerie of puzzling symptoms to make a diagnosis. The difficult art of setting bones and stitching up ripped parts to put everything back into one functioning unit. It was hard to explain it to others, but the concept was just so infinitely enthralling to him that he could hardly see himself doing anything else.

Some of his earliest memories involved poring over medical books that he’d either borrow from the library, or buy with little handfuls of his pocket money that he’d meticulously save for months. His collection was small, but he eagerly read and reread each one, memorizing each diagram and paragraph in between bites of _youtiao._

He never saw himself as being particularly different from others, not really. Wasn’t it normal for everyone to obsess over the same books, focusing on the same subject more often than not?

After years of unpleasant revelations, he came to the conclusion that no, they did not. The other children his age moved onto different interests, but not him. He merely expanded his collection, and continued to spend quiet nights to himself. It wasn’t long before classmates got word of his solitary habits, and they seemed to find it remarkably funny, though he had no clue why.

Perhaps it wouldn’t have been as bad if puberty didn’t make him stand out even more than he would have normally. He tried adopting a more hunched-over scuttling posture, despite knowing full well what sort of unpleasantness that did to the spine, trying not to tower over everyone and attract stares. If he kept low to the ground, far fewer scrutinizing eyes were on him. 

Annoying as it was, he never lost his enthusiasm for medicine. He was content sitting squished into a too-small chair in the back of a room with whatever new books he could find, or ones he had read a hundred times before, idle hands fiddling with his glasses or rubbing across the smooth buttons of his shirt. His classmates thought of him as peculiar, or perhaps a freak, but he did his best to ignore it.

A puzzled inquiry by a teacher concerned by his antisocial behavior wound up dropping him in the office of a specialist whom Faust was far more interested in learning about the finer points of his job rather than saying anything about himself. The man was remarkably quick to label his menagerie of odd behaviors as autistic. In some ways, having a word to describe him felt like a relief.

In other ways, he resented that there was just another word to be hurled at him when classmates thought he wasn’t listening. He was more than happy to bury himself even further in surgical journals and chemical pamphlets.

The only thing that managed to come a close second to medicine was magic. The standard class courses had been an utter breeze, even to harder subjects like teleportation. The first time he’d teleported himself had been a complete accident, despite the extreme focus and patience it was supposed to take to perform it. As it turned out, his unusual perspective on the world was a key component of his magical proficiency. At least it finally got people to leave him alone, if only because they were afraid he was going to teleport them into the ocean if they made him angry.

There wasn’t even a moment of time wasted when it came to finding a livelihood. He’d spent his entire life planning and studying, which resulted in one of the highest entry test scores the medical college had ever seen. 

Faust finally felt like he was among his own people, people who shared a genuine passion for helping people. Even many patients seemed to appreciate his cheerily quirky personality. College and finding a doctorate was by far the best years of his life to date. Being able to finally live his dream was a feeling he couldn’t describe.

His skills with a knife very quickly found him a place in one of the country’s finest hospitals, from the moment his doctorate was official. People actually looked at him with true admiration and awe for his skills. Dr. Jian, the miracle worker, one of the world’s best surgeons. His schedule was always packed with patients seeking his assistance.

He loved his job. He loved the children, most of all. Such spirited little things. They always took his unorthodox personality in stride, laughing at his silly jokes and magic tricks to keep them happy. He always did his best to bring them smiles.

They brought him plenty back, too. Some even enjoyed giving him nicknames. A little girl liked calling him ‘Dr. Baldhead,’ which always got them both to giggle when he came to check on her symptoms. He liked her very much. She promised to write him letters about how she was doing once she was allowed to go home from the hospital. It wasn’t going to be much longer, just a quick surgery, just a little anaesthesia, and she’d be free to go as soon as she woke up.

He was looking forward to seeing her again...


End file.
